FORT CAMPBELL, KY (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – In 1969, Kenneth David, a fresh-faced 19-year-old drafted out of Girard, Ohio, stepped onto Fort Campbell soil to train for the ongoing war in Vietnam. He didn’t know then just what kind of hell was awaiting him overseas.
During a surprise enemy attack, David jumped into combat and drew enemy fire away from injured soldiers. “If I didn’t do what I did, we wouldn’t have survived,” he said this week in an interview with Clarksville Now. “Even though I was afraid, I advanced to protect who I knew couldn’t.”
More than 50 years later, Fort Campbell welcomed David’s return for induction on Tuesday into the 101st Airborne Division’s Medal of Honor Rotunda. David, now 75, was also honored in a ceremony at the Medal of Honor Wall in Governor’s Square Mall in Clarksville.
Rigorous basic training at Fort Campbell
In August 1969, David was drafted from his home in northern Ohio and sent 500 miles south to Fort Campbell. By that point, the U.S. had been sending troops to Vietnam for nearly four years. While at Fort Campbell, David endured rigorous basic training to prepare him for the fight overseas.
“The DIs (drill instructors) that we had at Fort Campbell, they broke us mentally and rebuilt us the way they wanted,” David said. “We were taught to just … react, do what you were trained to do, and you’ll make it.”
With basic out of the way, then-Pfc. David ventured farther south for advanced infantry training at Fort Polk, Louisiana. David then returned home to Ohio for a week before being shipped out to Vietnam.
Plane lands amid gunfire: ‘Welcome to Vietnam’
A four-engine jet carrying “225 boys” landed at the Bien Hoa Air Base in South Vietnam after nearly 23 hours of flight, David said. But the flight wasn’t without complications. As the jet was making its final descent into Vietnam, it came under enemy fire.
“We had black flak coming into Bien Hoa. Stewardesses were screaming, they buckled in. … The bad guys were trying to shoot us down,” David said. “Just like the old movies, how you see the bombers flying and you see the black smoke on the wings; that’s what we saw coming in. The pilot says, ‘Long as they don’t shoot us down, I’ll get you down safely.'”
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The 225 soldiers had been conditioned to expect changes in the environment when they landed, but some of the changes were hard to ignore. “When the door opened and we started walking out, it was the heat, the humidity and the stench,” David said. “The jungle, it was a completely different odor.”
Hell breaks loose in surprise attack
Around February 1970, David embedded into his new company in the jungles of the Thua Thien Province at Fire Support Base Maureen. The next few months were filled with daily firefights, with never a moment to let down his guard.
But in the early hours of May 7, things took a sinister turn. “I had told Sarge earlier, ‘I don’t feel right, there’s something going on.’ He told me I just had the jitters.”
David had just finished doing a situation report with their two listening outposts who clicked back on the radio that they were OK. A moment later, hell broke loose. “Noises, explosions, gunfire – listening posts were both dead,” David recalled. Approximately 300 enemy fighters had launched a surprise attack. Early into the assault, David’s platoon leader was killed.
David barely noticed he had been wounded as he and his comrades fought off the advancing enemy. In the midst of the fight, David handed over his radio, moved to the defensive perimeter and engaged the enemy directly.
At one point, David was knocked out by the explosion of a satchel charge, which is like a block of dynamite. David credits both his survival and his injuries to his ruck sack. David added with a smile, “I was more upset because I had a bottle of hot sauce and a can of soda in it. First time in months …”
By repeatedly exposing himself to hostile fire, he drew attention away from his injured comrades, providing them the chance to escape and survive. When daylight came, so did reinforcements. David and 10 other surviving members of his 18-man platoon were taken and sent to a hospital.
“My jungle shirt looked like a screen,” David said. “They said I was ‘peppered’ by an RPG.”
Medal of Honor bestowed in 2025
For more than 50 years, David has lived with the physical reminders of that battle. X-rays show small dots scattered throughout his body – remnants of the shrapnel still left behind.
Almost 55 years later, on Jan. 3, 2025, then-President Joe Biden bestowed the Medal of Honor on 75-year-old Spc. 4th Class Kenneth David.
This week, Fort Campbell welcomed David back into the fold for induction into the 101st’s “prestigious and sacred” Medal of Honor Rotunda, according to Fort Campbell spokesman Master Sgt. Anthony Hewitt. The rotunda is nestled in the atrium of the Division headquarters, and the sky-lit exhibit houses the names and pictures of the 101st’s 21 recipients of the Medal of Honor. On Aug. 26, David became the 22nd.
“Today and every day for the rest of my life I want to be known for honoring and helping veterans,” said David during his speech at the ceremony. “So, my dedication to God, my country and family … and all you veterans are unwavering. And I thank you very much.”
| MILITARY NEWS: More articles about Fort Campbell and the 101st Airborne Division